Just Kids

It was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, when a chance encounter in Brooklyn set two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation. Patti Smith would evolve as a poet and performer, while Robert Mapplethorpe directed his provocative vision toward photography. From Coney Island to Max's Kansas City to the Hotel Chelsea, the two made a pact to take care of each other through the hungry years. Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy — a portrait of two artists' ascent and a salute to New York City in the late sixties and seventies.

Why You Should Read?

• Experience a firsthand account of New York's legendary downtown art scene of the late 1960s and 1970s.
• Witness the intertwined beginnings of two iconic artists — Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe — before they found fame.
• Enjoy a moving memoir that blends love story, elegy, and portrait of a vanished era.
• Explore the collision of poetry, rock and roll, art, and sexual politics in a time of heightened creative ferment.

About the Author

Patti Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and visual artist who rose to prominence in the 1970s New York art and punk scene. Fusing poetry with rock and roll, she became one of the most influential figures in American music and letters, and her memoir Just Kids brought her story of her years with Robert Mapplethorpe to a wide readership.